


Moving Out

by Saintminseok



Category: NINE PERCENT (Band), 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: Angst, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Years Later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-05-10 09:15:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14734220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saintminseok/pseuds/Saintminseok
Summary: An unexpected meeting, 3 years later.Xukun smiles but Zhengting sighs."You never fail to amaze me"





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm writing this instead of sleeping. Also sorry because I didnt re-read this  
> English is not my 1st language and beta who? I don't know her.

3 years later, they meet.

  
Three years later and he was still dreaming about the same thing he was supposed to forget, but did he? 

The answer is no. He grew familiar to the feeling, was used to it by now but still couldn't get over what happened three years ago.

It was one of the rainy nights and he once again felt suffocated at home so he took his umbrella and went out in the rain. The weather was kind of helping him calming down.

He simply couldn't let go. Why, you’d ask him.

Probably because he was stuck in the past, because his not so crush lasted for as long as he could remember, that after the horrible break up he didn't give himself time... it was one of these options or maybe all of them.

He goes to one of the cafés near his dance studio. He had many memories here, but now he wasn’t here to remember them, only to breathe.

 

"Ling Chao, what are you doing here?"

 

It's been so long that he met the younger. He misses Justin...

  
"Sitting!"

  
He was sitting right next to the door when Zhengting went to him. The boy was the same bratty kid he used to know. He also knew that one of his brothers will probably come pick him up. It reminded him of Justin and Chengcheng. He missed them. He used to pick them whenever and wherever they go, nagging them all the time. He was so used to be the mom that he forgot how to take care of himself, his life revolved around them. And Cai Xukun.

  
He missed them, but was also the one to push them away. He regreted, but regrets even more not letting them back in his life although they tried, many times in fact.

  
He sighed and went to take his order after letting the young boy alone.

His umbrella in his hand, he sighs once again as he stands for a second. The café was almost empty, and Ling Chao was no longer there. He was about to go to his usual spot when he saw someone sitting there.

  
Sighing became Zhengting's favorite hobby for the past years. Not that he had a choice.

He absent mindly moved to another table.

  
“Zhengting?”

  
He knew the voice a little too much. And no it wasn't the same faint voice he'd hear in his mind. It was there, alive, loud in his ears, called for him.  
Too scared to turn. _God please not that place,_ he thought.

  
He slowly moved his head, looking at his usual spot, the one he once used to sit with his ex-boyfriend, only to find him, the man in question sitting at that one table they used to share.

  
“Hey!” he heard again. This time the man was looking at him while he did his best to avoid his eyes but the other's gaze was too strong, too piercing.

  
“Xukun!” He tried, but that was all what came out of his mouth.

  
Same face, same voice, same bright eyes and parted hair in the middle. Same lips… that he was used to… But who is he kidding? That was 3 years ago.

  
_How weak can you get?_

  
“How have you been?”

  
“Fine.” He answered a little too fast. He was not fine, and Xukun knew, he knew him a little too much.

“What about- you?” he dared to ask. Not really curious, but a part of him wished that he too missed him, that he thought about him even a little, that-

“Doing great!”

  
-wasn’t mutual…

  
Saying he was disappointed would be an understatement.

  
“It's raining.”

  
_I know._

  
“I didn't bring an umbrella.” He added, as if the conversation was going fine and smooth. As if Zhengting wasn't standing pale in front of him like he just saw a ghost, and was not burning his hands with the coffee cup he was holding on so tight as if he washolding onto it for dear life.

  
“You still have it.”

  
“What?” _what is he talking about?_

  
Xukun signaled the umbrella that was hanging on Zhengting's forearm. And Zhengting feels stupid.

  
Yes he still had it. Xukun’s umbrella, one that holds many memories of rainy days and nights. And he just had to take it on this specific day.

  
_Pathetic_.

  
“Oh that? Yeah, I guess.”

  
And Xukun smiles,and Zhengting’s legs go weak again. His smile was always Zhengting’s weakness.  
Zhengting sighs, Xukun grimaces and the older guesses that he would've thought he'll smile too… or something.

But then, Xukun leans a bit on the right, trying to see if there is someone behind Zhengting. And that's when it hits him.

  
“You're… waiting for someone.” It was supposed to be a question, yet it came out of hi mouth like stating a fact.

  
He moved on. _Of course he did_ , what were you expecting?

  
Before Xukun opens his mouth, Zhengting talks again. “I have to go.” And rushes himself to the door before it opens in his face, missing the “Wait! Zhengting!” coming from behind.

  
He wishes he didn't get out of home that night.

  
“Zhengting?” Said the person in front of him just as surprised as him.

  
_Wang Ziyi._

  
A name he won't forget. How to, when all he remembers was the taller one being the new kid in dancing class, taking him under his wings only for him to date Xukun, while the later was already in a relationship with Zhengting. So yes, they both cheated on Zhengting, in a way or another.

  
Zhengting lost the ability to properly speak. He moved past Ziyi who was still looking at him, then stopped.  
The tension was so heavy, even the cashier was looking at them.

  
Zhengting then takes the umbrella that was hanging in his arm, and throws it to Ziyi's chest, who takes it before it fells.

  
_You never fail to amaze me._

  
“That's yours.” He said with a smile. And god knows, he didn't smile for a long time. Then goes out of the café. At that moment, Xukun gets up, trying to understand what just happenned, before running out of the café, leaving a blinking Ziyi standing there, looking at what was in his hands.

  
“Zhengting!” the older hears on the road. But he was fast. He quickly turned to a small closed alley on the left. He was soaking wet from head to toe,but determined not to see Xukun again.

  
“Zhengting!” he hears again, closer this time.

“Zhengting, let's talk.” Xukun was frustrated.

“Where the hell did you go?” he screams, panting, before running back to the opposite direction, still looking for the other.

  
While Zhengting curled himself in a small ball, behind the huge garbage can in the alley. He was not crying, in fact was slowly blinking, looking at the ground. And this time he doesn't sigh. He knew it was time for him to move on…

  
And _Move out_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally back after ghosting yall for... months, i'm sorry ;^;  
> I decided to make it a chaptered fic because npc don't have that much time and we need more zhengkun in this life.  
> Hope you'll enjoy this chapter :D

Xukun goes back to the café where he finds Ziyi standing under the opened umbrella. His former umbrella that Zhengting was holding on.

“Did you find him?” he asks the taller before kneeling down, sitting on the floor letting the rain pour on him. An obvious question with an obvious answer as he could see, Zhengting not standing there.

“No luck!” Ziyi moves next to him, hiding him from the rain.

Xukun knows what Ziyi wants to ask him so he answers before the other even gets the chance to open his mouth.

“it was mine. I left it to him once when it was raining and…” he stops. How to explain that this happened before Ziyi got in the picture… “then few months later" he continues. “we broke up and I never got it back.”

 

The two of them spent at least 30 minutes looking for Zhengting.

When Ziyi got the call from a panting Xukun asking him to look for Zhengting, he didn't ask why. It was pretty obvious if you asked him.

After seeing the dead smile in Zhengting’s face, both know the boy hasn’t moved on yet. The Zhengting that was there a few minutes ago was another Zhengting, someone both of them didn’t know. The one they knew was always happy and smiling, cheering for everyone else and smiling even in the worst situation because “it’ll always get better, right?” he used to tell them. Both of them. Ziyi gulps at the memory of a happy Zhengting.

While Ziyi got on his knees helping Xukun on his feet, Zhengting made it home.

Looking like a drowned sad cat, he opens the door, takes off his shoes and goes to the bathroom. He looks at himself in the mirror.

_Pathetic_ , he thinks again.

Why did he have to be stuck in the past while they live their lives the way they want? Why did he think it stops there, that he cannot exist without Xukun?

“Crazy man!” he says to himself, still looking at the mirror and suddenly remembers Yanjun who used to say it all the time. The old good friend, a lame one if you ask him, but a good friend nonetheless. Yet Zhengting cut ties with him too.

He sighs.

Zhengting is still looking at himself in the mirror when his phone rings, a notification indicating him getting a message. Who’d contact him if not the dance studio he taught at?

Justin apparently.

“Xukun is back in town, so is Ziyi. Don’t get out! Love you xoxo.” He reads and clenches his fists.

He pushed the boy away, yet Justin still cared for him.

_What are you doing?_

It’s sad no matter how one looks at it, for the pretty boy to live his life as if it ended, at such a young age all because of love.

He is still looking at his mirror, at himself, trying to figure something out of the image he is looking at. He sees a young man, soaking wet, with no ambitions, no friends, nothing valuable in his life if you do not count the expensive hand bag he bought himself after five paychecks of his old part time job, back at school. He sees someone useless, then he remembers the old him.

He sees another complete different person, a smiling one, a happy one with bright eyes not the dead looking ones that are looking in the mirror. A person with a dream, with loving friends, with hope.

_Where did it go wrong?_

Xukun.

The answer to most of his questions seems to always go back to Xukun. He can only remember himself with Xukun but …

_What was I before him?_

And he cries, because he pushed his loving and trusting people, Justin, Chengcheng, Yanjun and everyone else because he was hurt. Because even before Xukun existed in his dictionary, Zhengting was happy. Xukun ruined him. And so did Ziyi.

He lets himself cry a little more.

Crying and sighing, his two favorite hobbies of the moment have to change, and so does his mindset.

The tall young man prepares other clothes, and gets into the bathtub, he’ll take a while there and will probably cry his heart out once again but hopefully this times he’ll get out of it with new resolutions.

 

Two hours later Zhengting is wearing fresh new clothes, his face still wet from the no ending tears, now sitting in his room looking at the mirror in there. He wipes his tears away and bites his lips as he takes away scissors. Didn’t someone out there say that cutting hair was a coping mechanism for almost everything in life? Well Zhengting guesses he’ll follow the advice.

And the hair is falling, the boy has no idea what he is doing but he looks at the amount of hair on the floor, it’s a lot more than he expected to cut then he looks at himself again and it looks… okay. He takes his time to style his hair, put on some accessories and makeup then looks at the clock in his hand before checking Justin’s schedule one more time. The younger kept sending him his schedules and plans with hopes that the older would show up one day. Maybe that day came a lot sooner than expected.

 

 

Ting was going to pick him up, like the old time. He hopes the surprise would be pleasing to the boys.

He sits in his car, the one his father gifted him a few months before graduation, the one he used to pick up not only Justin and Chengcheng for their little bonding time but also Xukun and Ziyi when he didn’t want the later to be left out.

He takes one last look at the mirror and breathes this time.

Few minutes later he’s in front of the school, waiting in the car. It takes ten minutes before he sees two tall boys talking to each other, while one of them is checking his phone pouting before showing the other.

_Justin_ … he chuckles. He even misses his own laugh…

Zhengting gets out of the car, closes the door and leans on it, looking at the boys with his usual unimpressed look, the one he used to have whenever he picked them up.

“Ten minutes late again, I see” he says and the reaction he gets is hilarious.

Justin almost trips on air and the Chengcheng looks like he just saw a walking zombie. God, how he missed them.

“Zheng-Zhengting?” Justin is making sure he isn’t dreaming, he looks at the boy next to him and “Fan Chengcheng can you kick me in the face, I think I lost my mind.”

“You never had it for you to lose it, kiddo” and this is all it takes for the boys to jump on Zhengting and hug him, making lots of students and teachers look at them, but who cares they finally found each others.

 

 

The trio rides the car, wondering where to go.

“Same place?” Chengcheng asks.

“Yea-“ but is about to say before he stops, making the kids look at him, both of them worried. “No! Let’s go somewhere else.”

And they do just that. Sitting in a new café, laughing, missing the old times. And Justin snaps a picture of Zhengting laughing which gets him a ton of notifications from everyone else missing Zhengting and wondering how the younger got the boy out of home.

“Wow, the reactions are…” Chengcheng starts. “expected.” Finishes Justin, getting himself a slap on the arm from Zhengting. It definitely feels like the old times for them.

“Ting! What got you out of your bubble? It’s been 3 years.”Justin was always an honest boy, he knew no limits and would ask the questions he had in mind without thinking.

“It’s just… about time? I mean I figured I should snap out of it, it’s not doing me any good.” Ting looks at them and feels sorry since they're worried for him. 

“Is it because of the message?”

_No, it's not._

“I met him.” And silence took its place in the table. “Both of them actually.” Zhengting continues.

Justin looks at Chengcheng, as if wondering if he should talk or not and receives a nod from the other, a sign of approve. “Are you okay?”

“No! But I’ll be”

 

 

 

 

 

Ziyi is sitting on a couch, looking at the album in his hands full of pictures when someone sits next to him. “Ziyi, you can’t stay with me a lot you know that.”

“I know, just few days.” He answers.

“You two came back together?”

“Yeah, we’re good friends.”

“Good f- what?“ It suddenly got the other’s attention before Ziyi speaks again.

“We broke up.” he says. "months ago."

 

 

 

 

 

Zhengting drops to boys to their respective homes and drives to the library to look for some fantasy books. He missed reading and letting his imagination fly taking him to different places.

He is just about to open the car’s door when it starts raining heavily.

“Screw it” he tells himself, “I’m going to run to the library.” And he’s just about to do that as he opens the door but he looks up as he doesn’t feel the rain pour on him, finally seeing an umbrella hiding him from the rain, the umbrella. He looks at his left and-

“Xukun!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's ass o'clock at night and i have morning classes but here i am. Again i wanna say i didn't proof-read this so i'm sorry if some stuff don't make sense i'll try to check it again later.
> 
> Come yell at me at @minseokting (twitter and curiouscat)

**Author's Note:**

> I may make it a chaptered fic if you guys like it.  
> Come yell at me on Twitter: @minseokting (previously @avecminseok )


End file.
